The present invention relates to a method for managing the configuration and/or operation of various features of telecommunication networks. The invention relates further to an arrangement for accomplishing the managing operations of the telecommunication network features.
Modern telecommunication networks provide various sophisticated features and/or services available to subscribers. These services are in most cases provided and run by the telephone companies (operators) and include features such as call forwarding, wake-up calls, answering services, directory services, text and voice mails etc. These services may be implemented, e.g. in a so-called Intelligent Network (IN).
Conventionally these services have been relatively difficult to use. In particular, the configuration thereof, e.g. the installation/removal and activation/deactivation and/or other changes thereof, requires in most cases the assistance of the telephone company. Some of the configurations are also such that they can be accomplished only by the telephone company, e.g. by a service person or an authorised clerk of the telephone company. To receive this kind of assistance, the subscriber has either to visit an office of the telephone company or at least to make a telephone call to them to order the desired configuration of services.
One of the reasons for this is the substantially unsophisticated and limited user interface of conventional telephone terminals (a simple keypad with numbers 0 . . . 9 and hash (#) and star (*)) The required key combinations are often long and hard to remember, and the lack of guidance to the user causes mistakes, or even dissuades the user from even trying. In addition, the conventional telephone systems and terminals do not give much feedback, if at all, after the subscriber has keyed in the instructions through the keypad. The nature of the user interface also limits the number and flexibility of the services that can be effectively and readily used.
To overcome the above problems, improved network arrangements and/or telephone terminals have been suggested. For instance, the performance of conventional POTS connections (Plain Old Telephone Service) is improved, e.g. by the so-called ISDN connection (Integrated Services Digital Network). Improved telephone terminals are also suggested, especially in connection with advanced connections such as the ISDN. These are intended to provide the user with an improved interface for setting, configuring, and modifying operations of the various features and/or services.
It is characteristic of ISDN that the user may utilise several communications services either separately or simultaneously. Different applications, which consist of a terminal device, a group of terminal devices, a multiservice switch, a local network, another private network etc., are connected to the ISDN by a limited user access group. The ISDN network enables the development of the conventional telephone to form a part of a multiservice terminal, such as a combination of a telephone and a PC, which enables simultaneous transfer of speech and data. The ISDN interface between the user and the network comprises various types of channels which can be used between the subscriber and the network for information transfer.
The ISDN B-channel is a channel operating at a rate of 64 kbit/s and is provided with timingxe2x80x94it is used for transferring all kinds of information, e.g. in different manners coded speech or data. The ISDN D-channel, which has a transfer rate of either 16 kbit/s or 64 kbit/s, is primarily intended as a signalling channel for circuit switched connections. By combining the different channel structures user accesses are provided. A basic access has a 2B+D structure and a basic system access has a 30B+D structure. By using the basic access system, one or several terminal devices may be connected directly to the ISDN network, whereas the basic system access is used for connecting large switches and local networks to the ISDN network.
The additional features/services referred to above are usually adapted to conventional telephone terminals. It is therefore difficult to introduce more advanced features/services, or their introduction is at least difficult and/or expensive to accomplish as it is necessary to provide subscribers with more advanced terminals. This cost factor has been one of the reasons for the slow introduction of advanced features/services in telecommunications networks, especially amongst home users.
There are arrangements utilising open communications networks, such as the Internet or MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) or similar, which provide for the transmission of telephone communications. The skilled person is familiar with these, and understands that the Internet is a global open communications network connecting through PSTNs (Public Switched Telephone Network) and suitable gateways to a great number of local area networks, such as networks of various companies, universities and other organisations. The skilled man also understands that the MAN is a network covering a geographically limited area, such as a city or a province. The MAN can also be a subnet of the Internet.
The two most often used communication protocols for the Internet are TCP and IP protocols (Transport Control Protocol and Internet Protocol respectively). In most cases, various services are provided utilising so called WWW service protocol (World Wide Web), which provides a graphical Internet interface for a data processing device, such as a microcomputer. The WWW contains HTML documents (HyperText Markup Language), i.e. xe2x80x9chyperdocumentsxe2x80x9d, one such document forming one entity which can contain text, pictures, even moving pictures, sound and links to other documents. One such document may also include several pages. A hyperdocument usually has a so-called xe2x80x9cweb masterxe2x80x9d which updates the document data.
The above explained graphical interface could give a wide range of possibilities for managing the different features and/or services available in a communications network. Features that could be controlled, e.g. by a WWW server, could, for instance, consist of the following: call forwarding and status information thereof, selection of a new feature and/or deletion of an existing feature, browsing of various available services, advance information and inspection of telephone bills, setting and removing charging limits, preventing calls from and/or to unwanted telephone numbers, telephone directory searches, additional services, such as secretary services and short messages (text or voice), etc.
In the Internet environment the access calls are usually transmitted to a modem pool of some Internet Service Provider (ISP), such as EUnet Oy in Finland. As the traffic in the Internet rapidly increases, it will become necessary to separate the Internet traffic from the other telephone communications, and to terminate the call, e.g. within a local exchange or somewhere else than at the ISP. However, the present telephone networks are not capable of terminating Internet access calls.
There remain problems which have prevented the large scale utilisation of various open communications networks for the provision, management and control of various services relating to the use and utilisation of telephone and other telecommunication arrangements. One of the main problems is the lack of reliable way to identify and authenticate the users of the networks. The other problem has relied on the privacy guarantees of the users when using the networks.
The present suggestions for providing authorisation and privacy in open networks, such as in the global Internet, usually require an agreement between the communicating parties. This has to be done beforehand, and by some other means than through the open network in question, e.g. by visiting the telephone company""s office. The agreement contains in most cases an individual key (number and/or characteristic sequence) or similar identification to be dialled-in, to obtain an access to a certain service.
So-called public key algorithms have been proposed to reduce the need for such agreements, but an authentication of the subscriber requires from him/her a formation of a private-public key pair so as to enable the subscriber to xe2x80x9csignxe2x80x9d his/her messages, commands, instructions etc. The widespread use of public keys would also require the existence of a suitable public key infrastructure (such as key signing authorities) which, however, do not yet exist. In addition, the acquiring of these keys requires a level of special knowledge which most ordinary users, especially the private subscribers, do not necessarily have. Another common concern relates to the possibility of intercepting and/or breaking of a password as it is transferred in the network.
Thus there is a need to be able to control the various features available in telephone or telecommunications networks in an easy and reliable manner, and such that a secure and authenticated manner for the configuration and/or use of the services and/or features in open communications networks is provided.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art solutions and to provide a new type of solution for the management of various services available in the communications networks.
An object of the present invention is also to provide an improved method and arrangement for user authentication and authorisation in communication networks.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a method and arrangement by means of which the configuration of user features can be facilitated and made more flexible.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a method and an arrangement in which graphical documents and displays can be utilised for management operations.
A fourth object of the present invention is to provide a method and an arrangement by means of which it is no longer necessary for the user to use and remember any particular keys or similar identifications codes when accessing various services and/or features of a communications network.
A fifth object of the present invention is to provide a method and an arrangement which provides a secure way for configuring features provided by the communication networks and such that the privacy of the individual users is improved.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for managing a communication network such that a user in a communication network environment is enabled to manage user related features provided in the network through a user interface, the method comprising the steps of:
initiating a call from the user interface to a server provided with a feature management service including an individual register of characteristics and associated available features for user interfaces;
establishing said call between the user interface and said server;
identifying the user interface by means of at least one characteristic thereof transmitted to the server during the call initiating step; and
enabling the user to manage the features associated to said at least one characteristic, using said user interface.
In a preferred embodiment of the above first aspect of the present invention, the communication network is a telecommunication network enabling a subscriber to the network to make voice and data calls. The user interface is connected to the network via a subscriber line having a line identifier (e.g. A-number) associated with it. More preferably, said at least one characteristic used to identify the user interface is the line identifier.
Preferably, said call is established between the user interface and the server via a restricted access telecommunication network. More preferably, said network comprises telephone lines controlled by the communication network.
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided apparatus for enabling a user in a communications network environment to manage user related features provided in said network through a user interface, the apparatus comprising:
a server provided with a feature management service including an individual register of characteristics and associated available features for user interfaces;
call connection means for initiating and establishing a call from the user interface to the server;
means for identifying the user interface using at least one characteristic thereof transmitted to the server during call initiation,
the server being arranged to enable the user to manage the features associated to said at least one characteristic using said user interface.
According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided a server for enabling a user to manage user related features provided in a communication network environment through a user interface, the server comprising:
a feature management service including a database containing an individual register of characteristics and associated available features for user interfaces; and
means for identifying the user interface using at least one characteristic of said user interface transmitted to the server during initiation of a call between the user interface and the server,
wherein said server is arranged to terminate the user""s access into said communication network and to enable the user to manage the features associated to said at least one transmitted characteristic through said user interface.
Several advantages are obtained by embodiments of the present invention, as the inventive solution provides a simple, reliable, flexible and readily usable manner for the management of features provided by the communications network. The solution provides a secure authentication of the user as it always occurs by means of a particular characteristic of the user terminal or a group of related user terminals, such as by means of the A-number or particular secure code signal identification. By means of this the user may avoid having to use and remember keys or passwords or using some other cryptographic solutions.
The privacy of the user in transactions between the user and the server is made secure as no data is allowed to enter outside the used communications line, such as ISDN/POTS, from the user terminal and terminating at the server and thus the transaction signals are not allowed to enter, e.g. the global Internet or an open MAN.
As a result of the above, it is possible to use the server, such as a WWW server, for purposes that would not otherwise be possible in an open communications network environment, such as for paying bills or ordering and crediting products and/or services offered in the network. This is likely to result in increased use of the features or services, which in turn means possibilities for larger scale provision and use of various services.
The invention may be implemented without requiring complicated and expensive auxiliary apparatus, but can rather be accomplished by already existing means, e.g. initially in the transit networks and later in the local exchanges as use of the service increases. The hardware costs will not become significant as the proposed solution can be readily integrated as an additional function in a modem pool, an access server or an access server which is integrated to form a part of a telephone exchange.